Cat 5 or cat 6

[Scott]

We just had a weird experience, we took a 3253 out for install and when we got there the network cable plugged into the unit with no link lights and we just pulled it out of a unit with link lights working. So thinking that the unit had a bad nic port we brought in another unit and the same thing happened. So we took another cable plugged it in and it worked. The only difference between the 2 cables was 1 was cat 5 and the other was cat 6. Why???? never seen this before

[guitar9199]

Possibly a bad cable.... not wired correctly or broken conductor.

[Scott]

well thats what we thought but it worked on the other unit... however we firmly believe it was a hand made cable and something wasn't just right... just weird that it worked on the previous machine.... Go figure

[sparkycivic]

what was the link rate on the old copier? the old one might have been only 100MBPS port, which only use 4 wires, and new one can go to 1000MBPS, using all eight wires. Auto-negotiation sometimes fails completely if certain wires are broken or not present("Cat-5" with only 4 wires).

When I can't get a link, I always test by setting equipment to 10MBPS-half(only uses 2 wires), see if link works, then try all the other options until I find the ceiling. once it's reliably linked at the best possible link rate I, advise the customer to check their wiring, and after it's repaired set to auto, but not my problem anymore-customer happy machine works right away, and they usually don't ever bother to fix the outlet until after the failure progresses to total meltdown.

[Swift]

We just had a weird experience, we took a 3253 out for install and when we got there the network cable plugged into the unit with no link lights and we just pulled it out of a unit with link lights working. So thinking that the unit had a bad nic port we brought in another unit and the same thing happened. So we took another cable plugged it in and it worked. The only difference between the 2 cables was 1 was cat 5 and the other was cat 6. Why???? never seen this before

Have you set the machine network speed to 100 base-T full duplex?
It could be the switch port or wall point cable fault tolerance had deteriorate that could cause machine NIC unstable.

[Scott]

Ended up being the cable was hand made especially for a sharp copier.... not a wire expert here but thats a new one on me

[darry1322]

Ended up being the cable was hand made especially for a sharp copier.... not a wire expert here but thats a new one on me

I had a new 3501i that wouldn't work on the same cable that was OK for the 330i that was being replaced once. Had a few odd installs since that needed new cables for the new machine. Higher connection rates just wouldn't work on the old cables.

[slimslob]

The major difference between Cat5 and Cat6 is that Cat 6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise, and provides performance of up to 250 MHz. Cat5e, in contrast, performs up to 100 MHz. Unless printed on the cable jacket itself the major observably is that the Cat 6 cable is usually stiffer in that it includes a spline (a longitudinal separator) in the wiring and thicker gauge conductor.

[Scott]

The major difference between Cat5 and Cat6 is that Cat 6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise, and provides performance of up to 250 MHz. Cat5e, in contrast, performs up to 100 MHz. Unless printed on the cable jacket itself the major observably is that the Cat 6 cable is usually stiffer in that it includes a spline (a longitudinal separator) in the wiring and thicker gauge conductor.

LOL no way ill remember that but thank you!

[slimslob]

LOL no way ill remember that but thank you!

Just remember that the only time Cat 6 is needed is for Gigabit connections.